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Staying in Dialogue with China
In partnership with the Stein am Rhein Symposium (stars), CMG is following up on last year’s successful execution of the first edition of the “Staying in Dialogue with China” webinar series. This second edition features six webinars with China-based experts concentrated on the H1, between February and June 2023 – before we expect international travel into China to more significantly recover. You can find an overview of the planned webinars here.
17 May 2023, 09.00-09.45 CET
Fourth conversation: Europe-China Relations in Fraught Times - Drivers and Outlook
In our fourth conversation of the "Staying in Dialogue with China" webinar series, Markus HERRMANN, Co-Founder and Managing Director, China Macro Group (CMG); (Advisory) Board Member stars, Zurich, will be talking to Jorge TOLEDO ALBIÑANA, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the People’s Republic of China, Beijing.
EU-China relations have in recent years deteriorated rapidly. Against the backdrop of unfulfilled hopes in European capitals of China converging with market-based economies and providing a level playing field for foreign business, the EU Commission adopted a more assertive approach in its strategic outlook in 2019, describing China simultaneously as a cooperation and negotiation partner, an economic competitor in pursuit of technological leadership and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance. The Covid pandemic, human rights issues, a China perceived as belligerent in the Taiwan Strait as well as Beijing’s position in the Ukraine war are further straining the relationship. In a recent speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen characterized China concisely as “becoming more repressive at home and more assertive abroad”.
To deal with an increasingly revisionist China in the eyes of Brussels, the EU vows to strengthen its own industrial competitiveness and resilience, make better use of existing trade instruments, develop new defensive economic tools and strengthen alignment with its partners – in short, the EU adopts a strategy of “de-risking” its exposure to China, while at the same time strengthening “the international system itself”. What does this strategic adjustment mean for engagement and diplomacy on-the-ground? What role does the transatlantic relationship play? Is there still hope for a reinvigoration of the CAI? Where can and shall the EU and China continue to collaborate going forward? And what does this mean for European business in China?
About the Speaker
Ambassador Jorge TOLEDO ALBIÑANA is a career diplomat from Spain. After taking his Degree in Law and entering the Diplomatic School in Spain, he joined the Spanish Foreign Service in 1989. Since then, except for three years in Senegal, where he was Ambassador of Spain from 2008 to 2011, his career has been devoted mostly to European Union Affairs. Among others, he was Spanish Secretary of State for the EU and European Affairs. In Asia, he has been posted to India and Japan before arriving to China in September 2022 as the Ambassador of the European Union.
Kindly note: All webinars of this series are held under Chatham House Rules and will not be recorded.
Webinars in the series

24 February 2023, 9:00-9:45 CET
Post-Covid China and Foreign Business – Quo Vadis?
Joerg Wuttke, President, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), Beijing

29 March 2023, 9.00-9.45 CET
China’s Economic Policy Blueprint after the NPC
BAI Chong-En, Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor; Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

14 April 2023, 9:00-9:45 CET
Special Topic after 2023 NPC - Organizational Changes of China's Financial Regulatory System to Manage Risks and Serve the Real Economy
XING Yujing, Senior Adviser, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA); Former President, Shenzhen branch of PBoC, China

17 May 2023, 9:00-9:45 CET
Europe-China Relations in Fraught Times – Drivers and Outlook
Jorge TOLEDO ALBIÑANA, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the People’s Republic of China, Beijing

Postponed - new date follows
China-EU Relations – Beijing’s View on Challenges and Opportunities
FU Cong, Ambassador and Head of the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union, Brussels, Belgium

9 June 2023, 9:00-9:45 CET
China’s Concepts and Aspirations for a Multipolar World
JIA Qingguo, Member, Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the CPPCC (2008-2013); Member, Standing Committee of the Central Committee of China Democratic League; Former Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China
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